Mechanical movement.



A. T. BROWN.

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 8, 1907.

968,445. Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

ALEXANDER T. BROWN, or SYRACUSE, NEW YoRK.

MECHANICAL MOVEMENT.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

Application filed August 8, 1907. Serial No. 387,690.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALEXANDER T. BROWN, citizen of the United States, and resident of Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanical Movements, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanical movements and it has for its principal object to provide an improved connecting device between two or more rotary parts, whereby the motion of one of said parts will be transmitted to the other or others.

One form of my invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figures 1, 2 and 3 are respectively a face View, a side view and an end view of a mechanical movement made in accordance with my invention, some of the parts in Figs. 2 and 3 being shown in section.

The device shown in the drawings comprises a base plate 1 having standards 2 in which are journaled three rotary parts, said parts being here shown as parallel shafts 3, 4 and 5. Said base plate 1 also has standards 6 which support the connecting device, which, in the form here shown, comprises a rod or shaft. 7 having projecting therefrom three arms 8, one for each of the shafts 3, 4 and 5, said arms 8 being rigidly connected with the rod or shaft 7 by hubs integral with the arms 8, said hubs being mounted on said rod and connected therewith by pins 9. In the present instance all of the rotary parts or shafts 3, 4 and 5 are on the same side of the rod 7 and they all turn in the same direction. Each of the arms 8 is eccentrically connected with the corresponding rotary member, and to this end each of said rotary members or shafts has a crank arm 10 mounted on the end thereof and connected with the shaft by a pin 11, and each of said crank connected with one of the arms 8.

When the crank arms 10 are horizontal the arms 8 are also horizontal, but when said crank arms are in their uppermost or lowermost positions the arms 8 are inclined upward or downward. This fact makes it necessary to provide at some point in the mechanism for this variation in the disposition of the arms 8, and in the particular form of the device shown in the drawings this variation is provided for in the manner of mounting the rod 7. Said rod is journaled arms 10 is in bearing blocks 12 in such fashion that the rod or shaft 7 may oscillate in said blocks and may slide lengthwise through said blocks. The blocks 12 are slidably mounted in slots 13 in the standards 6. As shown, these slots are made by forming rectangular notches in the top of the standards 6 and covering said notches by plates 14 secured to the standards by screws 15.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the bearing blocks 12 have flanges 16 which prevent them from being displaced sidewise from the standards, but the construction is such that the bearing blocks are free to slide a short distance toward and from the shafts 3, 4 and 5. When the arms 8 are at an upward or downward inclination the rod 7 and the bearing blocks 12 are drawn toward the shafts and when said arms are horizontal the bearing blocks and rod are moved farther away from the shafts. It will be obvious that this compensation may be effeet-ed at some other point in the mechanism if preferred and that it may be' effected by means differing in detail from those illustrated.

The arms 8 are connected with the respective crank arms 10 by universal joints. As here shown each of the arms 8 is formed with a spherical end 17 which occupies a hemispherical depression in the face of the crank arm. A plate 18, having an opening therein through which the reduced part of the arm 8 passes, is secured to the face of the crank arm 10 by screws 19 and in its inner face said plate is formed with a spherical depression that receives in part the ball 17 of the arm 8 and prevents said ball from becoming disconnected from the crank arm. The connection described constitutes a universal joint but it will, of course, be understood that any other suitable form of universal joint may be substituted for that shown.

Any suitable means may be provided for driving one or more of the shafts. For the purpose of illustration I have shown a hand-crank 20 mounted on one end of the shaft 3.

The operation of the mechanical movement is as follows :-If any one of the shafts 3, 4 and 5 be rotated, as for example the shaft 3, by turning the hand crank 20, the other shafts will be driven with it. If the hand crank 20 be turned in the direction indicated by the arrow a in Fig. 2, the crank arm 10 on the shaft 3, when the parts are in the position shown in Fig. 2, will force the arm 8 associated therewith toward the right and the rod 7 will thus be forced toward the right, carrying with it the other arms 8 and crank arms 10 and causing the shafts 4E and 5 to rot-ate in the same direction as the shaft 3. In this position of the parts the connecting device acts as a link or connecting rod between the several crank arms 10. hen the shaft 3 is turned through an arc of a hundred degrees or so from the position shown in Fig. 2, the arms 10 will extend toward the right from their shafts approxi mately horizontally. In this position of the parts the connecting device, considered as a link, is on the dead center, but if the rot-ation of the shaft 3 be continued the crank arm 10 will force the free end of its connected arm 8 upward, thus rocking the rod 7 in its journal blocks 12. This rocking motion will be communicated to the other arms 8 which will thus act to force their associated crank arms 10 upward and continue the rotation of the shafts 4 and 5, the connecting device in this position of the parts acting as a crank shaft. hen the crank arms 10 reach their vertical position, the connecting device again acts as a link, and when, after turning through 90 more, the arms 10 extend from their shafts horizontally toward the left, the connecting device acts as a crank shaft and the arms 8 as crank arms, forcing the crank arms 10 downward.

It will be seen that the connecting device acts alternately as a link and as a crank shaft and that when the connecting device, considered as a link, is on the dead center, said connecting device, considered as a crank shaft, is acting at its greatest advantage; and vice versa, when the arms 10 are in their vertical positions and the connecting device, considered as a crank shaft is at its dead center, then the connecting device, considered as a link, is acting at its best. In intermediate positions the connecting device partakes of both characteristics, that is to say, it is both rocking and moving longitudinally and is acting partly as a crank shaft and partly as a connecting rod or link. It will be seen that this connecting device has a no dead center position, but that it acts as efficiently in one position of the crank arms 10 as it does in another. The several rotary parts are thus driven regularly and smoothly in unison by a sort of combined crank shaft and link action, in some positions of the parts one of these actions taking place alone, and in other positions the two actions taking place simultaneously. This connection is an extremely simple and convenient means for communicating motion from one of a plurality of rotary partsto the other or others. It will be obvious that where, as in the present instance, the several shafts are on the same side of the rod 7 the motion of said shafts will be in the same direction and at the same s eed.

It will be obvious that various changes may be made in the details of construction and arrangement without departing from my invention.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a mechanical movement, the combination of parallel shafts, means for driving one of said shafts, and means for communicating the motion of said driven shaft to the other of said shafts, said means comprising a member mounted for longitudinal and rocking motion and having arms at different points in its length and all of said arms projecting in the same direction, one of said arms being eccentrically connected with each of said shafts.

2. In a mechanical movement, the combination with two or more parallel shafts, of means for causing said shafts to turn in unison, said means comprising a rocking and sliding rod having arms one eccentrically connected with each of said shafts, journal boxes for said rod in which the rod is free to turn and to slide endwise, and supports for said journal boxes arranged to allow said boxes to move toward and from said shafts.

3. In a mechanical movement, the combination with two or more parallel shafts, of means for causing said shafts to turn in unison, said means comprising a rocking and endwise movable rod having arms one eccentrically connected with each of said shafts, and means for supporting said rod with freedom to turn and to move endwise and also to move in a direction toward and from said parallel shafts, but restraining said rod against motion transversely of the plane common to said shafts.

Signed at Syracuse, in the county of Onondaga and State of New York this 3d day of August A. D. 1907.

ALEX. T. BROWN.

WVitnesses C. E. TOMLINSON, JOHN A. PRoss. 

